11th September 2011, 11:13 AM
Dinosaur Wrote:Done plenty of urban, including ?1M+ jobs (and that was back in the 80s when ?1M went towards a really big hole), and never yet seen one that didn't involve some machining, even on TV. Do people still break out concrete and empty rubble-filled cellars by hand then?
100% excavation doesn't necessarily mean that it all has to be done by hand, I'd say it should be done using the most appropriate tools for the job. In the case of breaking out concrete, this would mean using a pecker, while I'd have no problem with a machine being used to clear a rubble-filled cellar. If the 'big yellow trowel' is under archaeological direction, and if the material removed is recorded, I would view it as a sensible strategy to adopt, particularly on a commercial site where time is likely to be tight, and where the developer is unlikely to be happy for you to spend three weeks emptying a cellar by hand, only to then go back to them and say that you need another three weeks because you spent so long on the cellar that you didn't manage to complete the medieval building below. In a perfect world, maybe everything would be excavated by hand, but on a commercial site, it's likely to be a question of making the best use of the resources available to ensure that the project aims are accomplished.
You know Marcus. He once got lost in his own museum